Divided Cypriot Communities Get Together for a Battle--but No Bullets Fly, Only Darts
When Turkish and Greek Cypriots took aim Sunday, it wasn’t at each other. The best-flung darts went straight to the bull’s-eye.
Busloads of Cypriots, nominally enemies, gathered here from both sides of the Green Line for an unconventional bid for peace on the divided island.
“We came here to play darts and to prove that we can be together,” said Mustafa Bolkaner, a used-car dealer from the Turkish Cypriot half of the divided capital, Nicosia.
The First All Cyprus Darts Tournament was the first major sporting event between the two Cypriot communities since the eastern Mediterranean island gained independence from Britain in 1960, organizer Tom Thoupos said.
Forty Turkish Cypriot dart players and scores of friends and fans trooped through barbed-wire barricades at the U.N.-administered checkpoint to line up against 88 Greek Cypriot challengers at Nicosia’s Hilton hotel.
The tournament was meant to show that ordinary people--car mechanics and cooks, salesmen and secretaries--don’t care much about the “Cyprus Problem.”
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